Brick



Oct. 13, 1925- C; E. SMlTH ET AL BRICK Filed Dec. 2'7, 1924 gwuewfow NmhMBuckirgham attained Patented Oct. 13, 1925.

UNITED STATES PATENT orrice.

CLARENCE E. SMITH AND NOAH M. BUGKINGI-IAM, OF WABASH, INDIANA, ASSIGNORS OF ONE-THIRD TO A. H. LANDWEHR, OF HOLLAND, MICHIGAN.

BRICK.

Application filed December 27, 1924. Serial No. 758,440. I

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, CLARENCE E. SMITH and Noan M. BUOKINGHAM, citizens of the United States, residing at Wabash, in the county of 1Vabash and State of Indiana,

have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Bricks, of which the following is a specification.

Our said invention relates to bricks for chimneys and it is an object of the same to provide brickswhich may be laid up in chimneys and when so laid up will prevent any possibility of fires by reason of disintegration of the mortar in the chimney.

The invention of this application is an improvement and further development of the invention of our co-pending application No. 692,154 filed February 11, 1924:, the invention of which is incorporated herein and this application thus made in part a continuation of said earlier application which is abandoned in favor hereof.

A further object is to render the construction of chimneys less expensive, and to construct the vertical mortar joints, from defects in which practically all chimney fires originate, so that they will contain within themselves the effect of a flue lining. As is well known many cities require a flue lining under present methods of construction, but such linings being made of tile have little capacity of contraction or expansion, and frequently break down in the bottom of the flue, obstructing the flue and destroying the protection of the mortar joints for which it was intended.

Referring to the accompanying drawings which are made a part hereof and on which similar reference characters indicate similar parts,

Figure 1 is a plan of a chimney embody ing our device, and

Figure 2, a perspective.

In the drawings reference character 10 indicates bricks of peculiar shape which are laid up to form a chimney with mortar in the joints between the bricks, such mortar being indicated at 11. The bricks have flat upper and lower faces as usual but each one is reduced at one side along an arcuate line 12 to provide for a round opening of the chimney if such a round opening is desired. In other cases this part of the side of the brick may be made fiat. At the same side or at a distance from the cut-out section 12 is another smaller reduced portion or recess 18. Each brick also has at one end a projection 14 adapted to fit approximately in the recess 13.

Bricks of this character can be laid round and round, asv indicated in Figure 2,. with mortar between successive courses and between individual bricks at the ends and sides and all bricks in each course will interlock. Should the vertical oints now be broken for any reason or should the mortar disintegrate and crumble or wash out as it does in old chimneys, a spark will still not have a straight course out of the chimney as ordinarily but must follow such a course, for example, as illustrated by the broken line at 15 in Figure 1. Damage from such a spark is of course almost impossible since even if a spark should escape in this way it would probably not have any life remaining by the time it reaches the outside of the chimney.

It may be said that there is, in effect, a flue lining in the bricks themselves. Furthermore the conformation of the bricks which causes them to function not only as bricks ordinarily do but also as a flue lining and serves as a binding force to secure them together in addition to the binding force afforded by the mortar. It will be obvious to those skilled in the art that bricks according to our invention are reversible and that they can be laid in either directions in the courses; as for the purpose of breaking joints.

It will be obvious to those skilled in the art that certain variations in design, etc., can be made in the device of our invention without departing from the spirit of the invention and therefore we do not limit ourselves to what is shown in the drawings and described in the specification but only as indicated in the appended claims.

Having thus fully described our said invention, what we claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A chimney brick in the form of a rectangular parallelopiped having the faces adjacent to one vertical edge cut away to form a uniformly curved surface which is adapted to define a closed cylindrical opening when laid with other blocks of corresponding shape, substantially as set forth.

2. A chimney brick in the form of a rectangular parallelopiped having the faces adjacent to one vertical edge cut away to form a uniformly curved surface which is adapted to define a closed cylindrical opening when laid with other blocks of corresponding shape the remaining portions of the faces adjacent to the one vertical edge being provided with projections and recesses adapted for cooperation with oppositely formed portions on adjoining bricks, substantially as set forth.

3. A chimney comprising a plurality of courses of bricks, each course being formed of a plurality of bricks arranged in reverse relation to those of the adjacent course whereby the joints are staggered, each brick being in the form of a rectangular parallelopiped having the faces adjacent to one vertical edge cut away to form a uniformly curved surface, which define a closed cylindrical opening, the remaining portion of one of said faces adjacent to the one vertical edge being provided with a projection and the other of said faces having a recess therein, mortar in the joint between adjoining bricks held therebetween by said cooperating projections and recesses thereby obviating the necessity of a flue lining, substantially as set forth.

4. A chimney comprising a plurality of courses of bricks, each course being composed of four bricks each brick being formed with a right angular outside corner and with an inner face in the form of a segment of a circle and an abutting edge adapted to fit against the next brick having an interlocking recess adapted to interlock with a coinpleinentary projection on the abutting end of the adjacent brick and with its opposite end formed with a projection adapted to interlock with a complementary groove in the abutting edge of the adjacent brick, whereby a chimney is formed of bricks with four blocks to the tier having four square outside corners and an inside orifice the circu1nference of which is a circle and with all vertical joints in the chimney bonded, substantially as set forth.

I11 Witness whereof, we have hereunto set our hands and seals at Wabash, Indiana this twenty-second day of December, A. D. nineteen hundred and twenty-four.

CLARENCE E. SMITH. L s.] NOAH M. BUGKINGHAM. [1,. 8. 

